This Outcome Stories module is intended primarily for scientists and science communications specialists, who would like to contribute regularly to the Knowledge Sharing platform featured on Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning. The guidelines and template can be used to draft and submit outcome stories of professional quality following our standard requirements to:

capture and identify changes in knowledge, skills, practices, behaviours, attitudes, policies and/or investments that emerged as a result of research conducted in the framework of CGIAR and relatable institutions;
influence and stimulate the improvement of business practices and research for development practices (e.g. farming practices, policies, investments, attitudes);
educate donors, policy makers and beneficiaries about the impact of the projects and activities undertook, proving the usefulness of fund allocation;
attract new investors, financiers and partners for collaboration in order to continue and further develop the research.

Our outcome stories are published without formal scientific review, thus placing a high level of responsibility on the author. Make sure the readers are not mislead and scientific research evidence is not misrepresented.

Your Audience

The Knowledge Sharing targets an informed, global audience from developed and developing nations with an interest in:

the development of Agricultural Livelihood Systems (ALSs),
the implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices,
the enhancement of inter-institutions synergy and innovation platforms diffusion,
the outreach of research-related knowledge to comprise a wider public of students, scholars, and stakeholders,
and a host of development challenges linked to climate change, land degradation, poverty, food and nutrition security, sustainable use of natural resources including water management, ecosystem services, gender equality, capacity development, migration, etc.

"Content is King"

Always ensure there is enough relevant content to tell about. Here is a list of 8 questions to address at projects managers, activities responsible and key informants: at least 6 of those must be answered exhaustively in order to gather enough meaningful content.

How the project/activity has been carried on (e.g. the role of science-policy interface, the partnership strategy, is there an innovation platform involved)?
Which benefits have been observed in the target countries (e.g. hectares affected, lives affected, crops affected, services provided) and on a partnership level (e.g. the development of a tool, a set of policies, an agreement, increase in capacity, capacity development)?
How the partners reacted to the interventions? Were they happy of the results? How governments reacted to the interventions?
Why the interventions were necessary?
What benefits will them bring on the long run? Will other partners or governments adopt them? Wil farmers adopt them?
Which partners cooperated and advocated for the implementations? Will other partners join the project or mirror it in their own countries?
What are some of the key lessons learned from the interventions?
How will these lessons be incorporated in phase II of the project?

Examples of Outcome Stories

Check the Dryland Systems Annual Report 2015, pp. 31-50, to see how it is done!

Eight Tips on Outcome Story Communication Goal & Strategy

Tip 1. Identify the specific audience and the exact achievement the story will highlight.

Identify your key stakeholders, for example, a specific rural community, a farming organization, a women’s group, young researchers, the public sector, the private sector, etc.
Identify how they will benefit from your research – types of outcomes and impact might include: improving a public service; influencing public policy; contributing to capacity development; etc.
Identify how you will ensure they have the opportunity to benefit, for example through participatory research action, on-farm trials, new technology, new institutional arrangements, public events, etc.

Tip 2. Aim at engaging researchers.

To maximise the impact of your research, you need to engage with your key user groups. This can provide substantial benefits for the quality of your own research, including:

Feedback – to help shape your research agenda and improve methodologies.
Relevance – to ensure your research is meaningful, timely and useful.
Greater participation in your research – to enlist participants for focus group discussions and surveys.
New Skills – to strengthen your overall communication skills so that you can describe your work more confidently to different kinds of audiences.
Increased visibility – for yourself and your work by reaching out and engaging with a greater number of scientists from other disciplines, as well as the general public.
Lessons Learned – by taking the time to evaluate successful outcomes of you, you will also be force yourself to examine the process of what worked, what didn’t and why. These lessons can then be shared with other colleagues and considered in your future work.

Tip 3. Highlight the benefits for the society.

The aim of outcome stories is to ensure that decisions on policy and practice are informed by secure evidence, thus presenting evidences of impact on:

Reduce poverty, improve food and nutrition security.
Improve social well-being and enhance the quality of life.
Address gender inequality.
Create opportunities for disenfranchised young people.
Increase economic prosperity by generating income and creating wealth.
Protect the environment and preserve natural resources.
Encourage capacity to innovate in the face of global challenges such as climate change.
Improve the effectiveness and sustainability of public, private and third sector organisations.

Tip 4. Include the critical elements of outcome stories.

The outcome stories should be specific, that is, they should relate to specific challenges, actors, solutions, and outcomes, and they should describe one compelling event or a series of events and milestone outcomes. To ensure this, the outcome stories should reflect and include the following elements::

Who-what-how – The research outcome story should clearly identify (a) Who is the beneficiary or group of beneficiaries? (b) What specific research-in-development intervention took place? (c) How was that intervention delivered?
Integrated system approach –The story should highlight the application of integrated systems research and systems based approaches for building resilience and/or ensuring sustainable agricultural intensification.
Types of outcomes – The story must be linked to the types of outcomes Dryland Systems expects to achieve in terms of influencing and/or improving: (a) Livelihoods of local dryland communities and people in terms of resilience, adaptation, social equity, food and nutrition security, healthy and sustainable management of dryland ecosystems, and so forth; (b) Practices of governments, donors, private sector or how INGOs/NGOs implement their programs at different levels (c) Policies, guidelines, conventions at the global, regional or national level.
Impact pathway – The narrative of each story must clearly reflect the theory of change inherent in the impact pathway of the Flagship concerned and/or its contribution to overall CGIAR Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs).
Gender – The story should indicate, where possible, how gender-related issues are being addressed and/or how gender was integrated into the research. The stories should clearly demonstrate how incorporation of gender improves systems thinking and articulation of development solutions for dryland communities.
Scalability – The narrative should focus on demonstrating the scalability of outcomes and impact by answering the question: If these results were scaled up and out how many livelihoods and hectares of land could be potentially affected and improved?
Partnership Approach – The story should outline the partnership approach to designing and implementing the research, identifying critical partners at local, national, regional and global level and their role in achieving the outcomes.
Inter-center and inter-CRP Collaboration – The story should demonstrate how inter-disciplinary scientific collaboration took place amongst different partner centres and other CRPs.
Acknowledgment – The story must include an Acknowledgement to identify the contribution of your institution and other donors in compliance with related intellectual property, branding and acknowledgment regulations.

Tip 5. Make use of Research for Development (R4D) and CGIAR programmatic terminology:

Intermediate outcomes – Outcomes of a program achieved within 2 to 3 years of program initiation, often including changes in behavior, norms, or policies.
Outcomes – Specific changes that are direct results of program activities, including changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors. Outcomes can be considered in three time blocks: short, intermediate and long-term effects.
Long-term outcomes – Outcomes achieved within 2 to 3 years of program initiation, and often include changes in organizations and systems.
Short-term outcomes – Outcomes achieved within 1 to 2 years of program initiation and often focus on change in knowledge, attitudes, and skills.
Outputs – The amount of product or service that the program intends to provide. These include specific types, levels, and targets of services to be delivered by the program.
Partners – Agencies, organizations, and groups with which you collaborate or associate to further the goals of your program research activity.
Stakeholder – An individual or organization that has a substantial interest (i.e., credibility, financial, or power) in a program and its results.

Tip 6. Highlight the added value of the project or activity subject of the story.

When developing the outcome story, ensure to inform on the added values of the research, such as:

Offering a comprehensive understanding of intractable development challenges.
Developing and formulating appropriate technologies, practices, institutions and policies for solving those challenges.
Facilitating scaling out and up for greater development impact.
Growing multi-stakeholder engagement for greater ownership of impact.
Building capacities to innovate for more sustainable development impact.
Entailing continuous monitoring, evaluation and learning.
Providing credible evidence for increased investments in research.

Tip 7. Focus the discourse on key themes.

When developing your outcome story, you should also keep in mind some of the key themes to focus on, such as:

Integrated systems research.
Resilience.
Food Security and Food Access.
Climate change.
Sustainable agricultural intensification.
Sustainable natural resource management.
Health and Well-being.
Nutrition and Biodiversity.
Increased Income and Wealth.
Gender and Women’s Empowerment.
Youth Employment and Opportunities.
Partnerships and Innovation platforms.

Tip 8. Mind the style.

When drafting your outcome story, please do not cut and paste from technical documents or research proposals. Write in your own words. Convey the facts, figures and implications of the research, as well as your passion and enthusiasm. And remember the primary purpose of the outcome story is not to promote your center, the activities of your DG, the individual scientists involved or simply describe the research activities as opposed to their actual results and impact.

Length – (a) Keep paragraphs short—no more than three to four sentences. (b) Keep story to no more than 1500 words.
Narrative – (a) Stick to the facts. (b) Do not interject an opinion unless you attribute it to someone. (c) Describe the activities succinctly; outline the action steps taken. (d) Describe the problem/issue/challenge being addressed and why it’s important. (e) Include direct quotes if they strengthen the story. (f) Use numbers to quantify results and convey the compelling outcomes of the program/activity. (g) Keep messages simple and concise. (h) Provide an effective conclusion to wrap up the story. (i) Emphasize the broader potential benefits of implementing the program. (j) Avoid using passive voice (e.g., “Trainings were provided.”). (k) Use active voice (e.g., “X partner provided Y trainings.”), and be clear about who is doing the action in every sentence.
Language – (a) Limit use of acronyms. If you use acronyms, spell them out in the first instance. (b) Use plain language. (c) Avoid jargon. Readers often skip over terms they don’t understand, hoping to get their meaning from the rest of the sentence.
Acknowledgment – Establish and acknowledge link to Dryland Systems.

This toolkit was prepared by Tana Lala-Pritchard, Dryland Systems Communication Program Coordinator, and adapted to MEL by Valerio Graziano, ICARDA Learning & Open Access officer. The toolkit is meant to be a living document and will be updated regularly. Your feedback and suggestions for further improvement are welcome.

For further information and assistance on how to use these guidelines, please contact the author at t.lala-pritchard@cgiar.org.
For more information and assistance on how to use the Outcome Stories Module, please write at mel-support@cgmel.org.

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